Hanover Fair 2010 Report
loading… Darn volcano! Kept me from experiencing Hanover Fair in person this year. But at least let me share my second-hand Hanover experience with you. The PI Booth was rather lonely early in the week: So that presented a good time to get photos of the PROFINET walls and the PROFIenergy wall: Activity picked up…
Register Early for Classes
loading… For the second time this year we’ve had to close registration for our free one-day training classes. Philly filled up with 140 registrations and the hotel had no more space available. Our apologies if you could not get in. We do have a PROFIBUS class on June 3 in the Hartford, CT area. I…
IO-Link, a natural complement to PROFINET
loading… I thought I would be reporting this week from Hanover Fair, but… well, the transportation to Europe was disrupted. It’s not the first time my travel has been disrupted; in fact, not even the worst disruption. At least I’m stuck at home instead of halfway to somewhere like I was on 9/11/2001. So, I’ll…
What is a Node?
loading… One of the questions that came up in the market share discussion over at Gary Mintchell’s Feed Forward blog (Ethernet in Manufacturing and Automation) centered on the definition of a node. Thanks to a telephone conversation with the author of the study that sparked it all, John Morse of IMS Research, I can answer…
Ethernet Is the Industrial Network of the Future
loading… My blog post last month about market shares triggered Gary Mintchell to comment on his Feed Forward blog. That started a discussion that is worth following: Ethernet in Manufacturing and Automation. –Carl Henning
You Can’t Say “Free” Training
loading… If you use the word “free” in the subject line of an email, it will probably get flagged as spam. So we have to get creative to let folks know about our free training classes via email. “No-fee” usually works. I’m headed to St. Louis tomorrow for Wednesday’s PROFINET one-day training class (seats still…
Wireless Distance to Nashville
loading… In Nashville, I did not answer a question adequately about the ranges for various wireless technologies according to a comment on one Course Evaluation. Let me remedy that here: The expected distance for the various IEEE802.11 variants (a, b, g, and n) is 100 meters but that will vary based on the antenna used…
Topology: Chicken feet or palm trees?
loading… OR I love some of the terminology that Ian Verhappen uses in “One Network Topology Is Not a Silver Bullet” at ControlDesign.com. But I have to correct some Industrial Ethernet misconceptions. Ian is right when he notes that the default Ethernet topology is the star… but that is only right in the office. For…
PROFINET Uses Standard Ethernet!
loading… Because Atlanta was our first PROFINET one-day training class of 2010, I sent out a short follow-up survey. One of the interesting comments from that survey: “I think it is important for device manufacturers to know when they can use a generic Ethernet MAC ASIC (or FPGA) and when they cannot. Don’t hide this….
Green PROFINET
loading… Being unable to avoid leveraging St. Patrick’s Day (or at least St. Patrick’s Day ads), I have to talk about the “Saving of the Green.” Specifically, I want to talk about how PROFIenergy can help save energy costs (and reduce carbon footprints, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and generally save the planet). But since it’s…